This invention relates to a seat member integrally formed of a synthetic resin material to provide a support structure of a seat in a vehicle.
Conventional bucket seats in vehicles, especially, automobiles have comprised a support structure in the form of a spring assembly made by assembling or conncting coil springs, S springs, formed springs, parallelly arranged spring wires or the like to provide the seat base portion or seat back portion and wing or flap portions, a pad of a synthetic resin foam material supported on the support structure, and a surface material covering the pad. A conventional bucket seat construction employing parallelly arranged spring wires as its support structure is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,002. The bucket seal construction disclosed in this U.S. patent has been advantageous from the viewpoints of mass production and cost since the springs such as the coil springs and S springs employed at that time as the principal elements of bucket seat construction are replaced by inexpensive spring wires arranged in parallel. However, the proposed seat construction has had still such drawbacks that it requires a considerably large number of parts, hence, many steps for the manufacture.
The present invention is based on a departure from the concept of using metal springs or wires as principal means for providing desired resiliency in such a prior art product. In the present invention, the metal springs or wires are replaced by an integrally-formed support structure of a synthetic resin material, and a plurality of suitable cutouts or openings are formed in the support structure so that the desired resiliency can be provided by the combination of the inherent resiliency of the synthetic resin material itself and the structural resiliency of the support structure owing to the formation of these cutouts or openings. In other words, the seat member according to the present invention comprises a single support structure integrally formed of a synthetic resin material and eliminates the use of the prior art elements such as the coil springs, S springs, formed springs, end wires and frames. Therefore, the seat member according to the present invention is very simple in construction, light in weight and can be manufactured at low cost without requiring many steps.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel seat member for use in a vehicle, which has the advantages of simple construction, light weight and low cost.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a seat member for use in a vehicle comprising a single support structure integrally formed of a synthetic resin material, said support structure including a seat base portion or a seat back portion formed with a plurality of cutouts or openings to provide desired resiliency, and wing or flap portions extending gradually upward at an angle from at least the outer side edges of the seat base portion or the seat back portion.
The synthetic resin material employed to provide the seat member according to the present invention is preferably, but not limited, that which is easily moldable, has a low specific gravity and is excellent in the physical properties including strength and resiliency. Such a material includes, for example, FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastics) and FRTP (fiberglass reinforced thermoplastics) such as AZDEL (trademark). A reinforced plastic material of the above kind but including carbon fibers in lieu of the glass fibers is also suitable for the purpose.